Springsteen and Clinton to campaign for Obama

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Bruce Springsteen, shown at a 2008 rally for Obama, will work for him again this week.

NEW YORK ­— Bruce Springsteen had said he planned to stay out of the 2012 election, but these are worrying times and the race is getting closer. So the Boss will be coming back to rally support for President Obama, his campaign announced Saturday.

Springsteen will join President Clinton at an appearance in Parma, in the swing state of Ohio, on Thursday. An Obama campaign news release said Clinton would ‘‘lay out a clear picture of the economic choice’’ Americans face in this election.

And the Boss? ‘‘His appearance will help with our get-out-the vote effort in these critical swing states, and we are thrilled with his ongoing support,’’ Jim Messina, the president’s campaign manager, said.

After the Parma appearance, Springsteen will head to Ames, Iowa, for another rally/concert for the president. Iowa is also considered a crucial state for Obama to win.

Springsteen campaigned for Senator John F. Kerry during his presidential bid in 2004, and he came out again, to better results, for Obama in 2008. But he said afterward that he would stay out of the 2012 cycle. Few people believed him, not only because Springsteen performed during the inauguration festivities for Obama in 2009, but also because his presence has been felt this year at every Obama campaign rally.

The tunes of the rock hero, who cut his teeth with odes to working Americans and the power of redemption, are a staple on the Obama playlist. - NEW YORK TIMES

Students register early for election

EVANSTON, Ill. — Every four years, volunteers swarm university campuses, clipboards in hand, to register newly eligible voters for what is generally the only presidential election of their undergraduate careers. This year they found large numbers were already registered.

Dozens of colleges have begun their own voting registration drives in orientation programs, class registration, intranet websites, and other inter-actions crucial to campus life, institutionalizing services that had often been left to outside efforts.

As a result, thousands of students registered to vote, updated their addresses, or requested absentee ballots from their home states within days of arriving to campus for this fall, officials at several universities said.

University-sponsored attempts to make voting easier for students are being tested in at least 60 colleges across the country amid the outbreak of battles over new voting laws.

“The voter registration process has become more cumbersome and difficult as there’s been a competition to define who is eligible to vote,’’ said Dan A. Lewis, director of Northwestern University’s Center for Civic Engagement, which started incorporating voter registration into its freshman orientation last year.

Northwestern officials who developed the new program, UVote Project, said their intent was not to critique voting rules across the country, but to help students navigate them more easily.

‘‘We’re not always going to have the incredible excitement among 18- to 22-year-olds that you did in 2008, so I think it’s an obligation,’’ said Morton Schapiro, the president of Northwestern. ‘‘We’re supposed to teach citizenship.’’ - NEW YORK TIMES

Shot fired at Obama office in Denver

DENVER — Denver police are reviewing video footage from city surveillance cameras after a shot was fired through a window of President Obama’s campaign office.

Police spokeswoman Raquel Lopez said the cameras are in the area of the campaign office on West Ninth Avenue near Acoma Street near downtown, and investigators are poring over the tapes for leads.

She did not release any other information, citing an ‘‘active, ongoing investigation.’’

Lopez said people were inside the office when the shooting happened Friday afternoon, but no one was injured. A large panel of glass was shattered at the office. Lopez said she is not aware of any threats against the campaign office.

The Secret Service referred questions about the shooting to Denver police. An Obama campaign spokeswoman declined to comment. - ASSOCIATED PRESS

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